Raphael Hyde

Raphael Hyde is an undergraduate industrial design student in The Design School in the Arizona State University Herberger Institute (pictured left). Daylight Solutions, a spin-off start-up company run by a team of interdisciplinary students and professors including Hyde, recently was awarded the Innovation Challenge Grant for their work focused on creating exciting new product solutions for the developing world.

Hyde has found that taking a human design approach to the developing world can make a dramatic impact. In March 2011, his team will use the funds from the Innovation Challenge Grant to continue the development of an energy generation product that promotes economic growth in the developing world. Their product, The Twig Light, not only produces light, but functions as a portable energy generator that has the potential for charging applications.

"It is important that we consider the needs of people worldwide as well as the unique business solutions that produce economic stimulus and value creation," says Hyde. "It's been a long time in the dark for us, I say it's time we turn the lights on."

Read more about the ASU Innovation Challenge.